QuagaarWarrior Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 @straykat - if you are definitely going to use the vanilla start I would use Alternate Start to jump straight into the game and test that your game is stable. Then it is up to you. You could disable the mod and start a new game or keep Alternate Start and choose I Was Caught Crossing the Border (vanilla Start) from the options Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomomi1922 Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 @tomomi - wherever you start with Alternate Start you have a quest marker pointing to Helgen telling you I investigate it. You visit and thatâs where the quest picks up. You then go to Riverwood to warn them.If you want to you can go into the cave and rescue either Hadvar or Ralof. You can also do most of the Helgen dungeon if you want some free loot.This is exactly how I remembered the Alternate Start in the old days. Then this is really nothing but just skipping away Helgen, with just changing the first 5 minutes of a movie. I usually play the game past Helgen to create a Vanilla save. This is exactly what Alternate Life is doing, a little more immersive (but soon to be forgotten once we progress). There is another Alternate start mod (that I can't seem to find right now) that promises something better (or so I think). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuagaarWarrior Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 You may be thinking of Skyrim Unbound Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted55545892User Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 @straykat - if you are definitely going to use the vanilla start I would use Alternate Start to jump straight into the game and test that your game is stable. Then it is up to you. You could disable the mod and start a new game or keep Alternate Start and choose I Was Caught Crossing the Border (vanilla Start) from the options Yeah, that seems useful too.. but I already have test saves. Definitely will keep it in mind though, in case I lose things. For me, the most useful and appealing alternate start is on a Dunmer character. I never liked the idea of him/her crossing the border from Cyrodil. I've always wanted to come from Morrowind. Or even be some angry ghetto elf in Windhelm.. if that's possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UhlanB76 Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 I have used Alternate Start several times with some being, choose the vanilla opening and the game did seem more stable. Twice I chose give me a random start and that was really different. The first one started me as a wizard's assistant in some rocky cave. The second one started me as a a shipwrecked sailor on a sinking ship. Both were real changes to the start, with little equipment and no Dragonborn life, but interesting challenges. Even if doing vanilla game, Alternate Start is well worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomomi1922 Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 I have used Alternate Start several times with some being, choose the vanilla opening and the game did seem more stable. Twice I chose give me a random start and that was really different. The first one started me as a wizard's assistant in some rocky cave. The second one started me as a a shipwrecked sailor on a sinking ship. Both were real changes to the start, with little equipment and no Dragonborn life, but interesting challenges. Even if doing vanilla game, Alternate Start is well worth it.Not to discount your experience, but ... since there is no change along the game after Helgen (give or take), would I just play Alternate Start for the exeprience, and then load back into my current game (where I started with vanilla intro) and pretend I went through an alternate start? Because it is counter intuitive to keep an .esp installed when we no longer need it for the rest of the journey. I believe most of us here do not play through Skyrim like it is with another game. Most games: it's like a race, fast or slow, we will have to progress. For Skyrim, we can spend 200 hours and still hang out around Whiterun doing some modded quests (like a follower quest). I am trying to do Immersive Wench quest. The author is a pervy lol. All the dialogues are ... from a pervy guy always thinking about big boobs. But if I am gonna hate it, I still want to finish the quest to justify my hate, lol. The design is very well crafted, just need a way to bodyslide the body + outfit. The author just feels too much work involved to get that part going. I get that vibe from talking to him. He also wants many suggestions to become reality, but not willing to do the work. And I completely share the sentiment: too much work involved to bring the content (because I can even create Bodyslide profiles for those outfits). But thinking of the amount of work ... I prefer to go back playing game like a dumb user. This may be too much to ask of anyone, but it would be nice to have an "Alternate Life" instead of "Alternate Start". We can join the army, pick a side, complete the civil war. But as for Dragonborn, we should have another NPC playing dragonborn instead. There are 2 developments in this: 1. This Dragonborn follower cannot be a traditional follower who follows us around aimlessly as our lackey. But without having the game giving us a timer, Dragonborn should only appear when we want to resume the main questline, otherwise he would be going on his own, doing Dragonborn business, slaying dragons, working with the Blades, studying with Greybeard. 2. Dragonborn will be a leader, which means requiring a lot more scripts for him to take the lead. Think of fighting with Delphine, she is not exactly a follower, but a "tour guide" guiding us to quest content. And for certain main quest line, player will just be told to "go away for a while" because the Dragonborn has to do the quest by himself. Like that blackbook quest with Miraak. That is loss of content, but it's very immersive. Or maybe another side quest is invented for us to support the Dragonborn from the outside, working with those local folks in Solstiem. I may be quoting Crysis Core (is it Crysis Core?) where we played 1 character doing the whole mission from start to end while our partner just went somewhere to "chill out" the entire game. And then there is another game (or a DLC, I forgot) that plays as the partner, in which we learn his involvement is a lot more actions. But such is so not going to play nice with a lot of mods out there, especially the Beyond Skyrim mods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyotai Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 I have used Alternate Start several times with some being, choose the vanilla opening and the game did seem more stable. Twice I chose give me a random start and that was really different. The first one started me as a wizard's assistant in some rocky cave. The second one started me as a a shipwrecked sailor on a sinking ship. Both were real changes to the start, with little equipment and no Dragonborn life, but interesting challenges. Even if doing vanilla game, Alternate Start is well worth it.Not to discount your experience, but ... since there is no change along the game after Helgen (give or take), would I just play Alternate Start for the exeprience, and then load back into my current game (where I started with vanilla intro) and pretend I went through an alternate start? Because it is counter intuitive to keep an .esp installed when we no longer need it for the rest of the journey. I believe most of us here do not play through Skyrim like it is with another game. Most games: it's like a race, fast or slow, we will have to progress. For Skyrim, we can spend 200 hours and still hang out around Whiterun doing some modded quests (like a follower quest). I keep it installed to avoid random CTDs from ghosted content in my saves... But 9/10 times I use Alternate Start to start in the inn of Riverwood - if I want to play a mostly vanilla game without the 24-hour long cinematic, or Whiterun if I want to run out and test NPC altering mods really fast... Honestly I would love for an 'Alt Start Light' mod that just popped me into the Riverwood Inn and opened racemenu... :smile: - But event that would need scripts and so not be safe to delete... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanupox Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 Thank all of you that replied for the great information! Yes I knew there were going to be so many great mods out there, very excited about getting started! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomomi1922 Posted July 6, 2018 Share Posted July 6, 2018 I keep it installed to avoid random CTDs from ghosted content in my saves... But 9/10 times I use Alternate Start to start in the inn of Riverwood - if I want to play a mostly vanilla game without the 24-hour long cinematic, or Whiterun if I want to run out and test NPC altering mods really fast... Honestly I would love for an 'Alt Start Light' mod that just popped me into the Riverwood Inn and opened racemenu... :smile:- But event that would need scripts and so not be safe to delete... You can do better. You need to run the game, unmodded, ONCE. Save it right outside Helgen. Or in fact, just save it right after you get released from the shackle and start to jump around freely. I name that character "Prisoner20180705" in which the number is today's date. Or whatever you want to name so later on you can tell if this is a 100% clean save. The intro takes 5-10 minutes. And later on, you can freely open up Racemenu to do your magic and start a new adventure. No mod needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyotai Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 I keep it installed to avoid random CTDs from ghosted content in my saves... But 9/10 times I use Alternate Start to start in the inn of Riverwood - if I want to play a mostly vanilla game without the 24-hour long cinematic, or Whiterun if I want to run out and test NPC altering mods really fast... Honestly I would love for an 'Alt Start Light' mod that just popped me into the Riverwood Inn and opened racemenu... :smile:- But event that would need scripts and so not be safe to delete... You can do better. You need to run the game, unmodded, ONCE. Save it right outside Helgen. Or in fact, just save it right after you get released from the shackle and start to jump around freely. I name that character "Prisoner20180705" in which the number is today's date. Or whatever you want to name so later on you can tell if this is a 100% clean save. The intro takes 5-10 minutes. And later on, you can freely open up Racemenu to do your magic and start a new adventure. No mod needed. I recognize that that can be done, but I purposefully avoided it as I really do not like having any gameplay before I've made my character. Conceptually it bothers me to be 'stuck as random nord male #457' for a bit... It is worth wondering though - if there is any notable taxation on my system for having the 'alternate start' mod in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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